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Law Lords refuse Al Fayed appeal

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Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed has failed in last-ditch legal moves to force the financial backers of Neil Hamilton to pay his legal costs of more than £1m run up in defending the former MP’s “cash for questions” libel action against him.

Al Fayed has been refused permission to challenge an Appeal Court ruling in May last year that the backers, around 484 of them, headed by Lord Harris of High Cross, cannot be forced to pay.

Hamilton has now been bankrupted and has paid nothing towards the costs.

Al Fayed had asked the Law Lords for permission to appeal against the earlier High Court and Appeal Court rulings that the backers cannot be made to pay.

However, in a decision published this week and without giving any reasons, Lords Nicholls, Millett and Walker have dismissed his application to appeal.